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FrozenGate by Avery

Seek Thermal Camera vs Energy Audit

Thanks for the advice everyone. I decided to go with the energy audit with plans to buy a thermal cam in the future. I want a better image quality than the standard seek camera and with flir coming out with a couple new cams this year it I'd rather wait. I'm really happy with how the audit went and to my surprise the blower door test revealed a lot more of the issues than the thermal camera. The camera showed the spots where our insulation was out of place but the blower door test showed us that our house was leaking almost twice as much air as what's typical and where those spots are. The guy we hired was very knowledgeable too. Totally worth the $99.
 
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TheDukeAnumber1 said:
Thanks for the advice everyone. I decided to go with the energy audit with plans to buy a thermal cam in the future. I want a better image quality than the standard seek camera and with flir coming out with a couple new cams this year it I'd rather wait. I'm really happy with how the audit went and to my surprise the blower door test revealed a lot more of the issues than the thermal camera. The camera showed the spots where our insulation was out of place but the blower door test showed us that our house was leaking almost twice as much air as what's typical and where those spots are. The guy we hired was very knowledgeable too. Totally worth the $99.
Click to expand...

Glad you went that way, as I had mentioned, the blower really brings out/magnifies the leakage you can otherwise miss.

:gj:
 
Sorry to say Duke but, that quoted resolution is the LCD screen resolution. NOT the sensor size. Its a bit of a slick move for sure isn't it?

The tech specs state,

● 206 x 156 Thermal Sensor



There is a discussion about it on EEVblog if you're interested.


http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/yet-another-cheap-thermal-imager-incoming/2053/
 
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Damn... Seek thermal deceptively advertises, Flir sells sensors gimped by software. Is there a good company out there?
 
Most of the equipment will work fine, you would just need to learn how to interpret the images to come to the correct conclusions.

I would start out cheap and easy to use, and see how it works for you. For an energy audit, you don't NEED amazing resolution....you're mostly screening for places where air is getting in/out, insulation or vapor barrier is missing/damaged, etc.

A simple B&W image where you set dark or light as hot/cold etc...will typically show you all you need.


If looking for termites, rodents, water damage/mold areas, or doing other kinds of building diagnostics, electrical work, etc, sure, more resolution is great...but even for that, it is fairly application driven, with some applications simply not requiring much resolution...and others greatly benefiting.
 
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My biggest issue has been air leaks and luckily simply holding a tissue in the air shows the air flow. I'm still holding out on thermal atm.
 
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